Removing chicken subsidy: Govt needs to ensure sufficient supply of chicken

KOTA KINABALU - Consumers Front of Sabah (CFOS) president, Nordin Thani, said the government needs to ensure that the supply of chicken is always sufficient to avoid a sharp rise in prices due to the termination of chicken subsidy on Wednesday.

He said based on a CFOS survey, the public or consumers do not really care if the chicken is sold using the floating system because they understand why the subsidy is removed but hope that the government should always ensure the supply of chicken is sufficient.

"However, the question is whether the government can guarantee a sufficient supply of chicken because if the supply of chicken is not sufficient, the price will increase significantly and it will inevitably burden all parties, both consumers or traders," he said when contacted by Bernama here today.

He was commenting on the announcement by Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu today that the government has agreed to end the chicken subsidy with effect from this Wednesday.

In this regard, he said the government, especially the relevant agencies, should always monitor to ensure adequate supply.

Meanwhile, the Sabah West Coast Wise Consumers Association president David Chan said the government should gradually reduce the subsidy to ensure consumers or the public do not suffer a sudden impact.

He said chicken and eggs are items that are often the choice of consumers because they are a source of high protein that is still cheap compared to other meat such as beef and lamb, as well as vegetables that are sold using the floating price system.

"For the B40 group, chicken and eggs are important because they cannot afford to buy expensive food...at least they can get subsidies for high protein foods such as chicken and eggs as their daily nutritious food," he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, a housewife, Sharon Tina, 37, said she was worried that the price of chicken would increase if there was no control over chicken and that it would cause chicken-based products to also increase, burdening the less well-off.

A grocery store owner Melvin Otod, 45, said the government's decision to stop the chicken subsidy at this point is not feasible because the people are still faced with the high cost of living.

"As traders, we also have to follow the price of chicken charged by the supplier to avoid any losses... buyers are mostly from the B40 and of course, they will be burdened if the price of chicken increases due to floating price system," he said. - BERNAMA